Best Type Of Wood To Make A Longbow

Two important characteristics determine the suitability of wood for bow making.

Best type of wood to make a longbow.

Really just about any wood will make a bow if you design it right whether that design is practical is the question. The wood must be able to bend without breaking. The two most commonly used bow woods are pacific yew and osage orange. Pacific yew is extremely strong under compression and sam harper of poor folk bows calls osage the ideal bow wood.

Here is a list of different types of wood that are up for the job. Best longbow reviews top 12 models 1. Ash is a ring porous hardwood and the early growth wood is coarse and stringy with the late growth wood being harder and stronger. Softer woods to avoid would be aspen cottonwood poplar balsa and pine.

Sas pioneer traditional wood long bow. These bows are usually made from just one shaft. How to choose the correct bow woods for your longbow. Longbows are the most common and simplest type of wooden bow.

Elm creates short stout bows with thick limbs. Nowadays archers become more interested in traditional bows. Measuring gluing and cutting this video goes through the main part of taking a 1 x 2 and making it start to look like a bow. Yew is typically regarded as the best wood for making longbows.

Similar to yew the bows elm yields are short lived and have a. Recurve bows can be made of several different woods including hickory yew osage orange and lemon wood. The sas pioneer is one of the best traditional longbows with some unique. You can also use wood like hickory white ash green ash black cherry but oak is just fine.

Generally woods you want to avoid are softwoods like pine fir spruce and cedar because they re really tension weak. However as individual bowyers have their own preferences some choose to make longbows from white oak red oak hickory red elm american elm osage orange or rock maple instead. Medieval bowyers used yew almost exclusively for making the famous english war bows which were the staple of england s armory for about 400 years. Woods that are best used for the stave include maple yew ash or hickory.

Hungarian flagella longbow horsebow editor s choice. Ash is another well known bow wood from history but like wych elm it made a far better broad limbed flat bow than a d section longbow. Even if the bow survives tillering it s probably not going to perform well or be durable.